Li Mo and the Golden Toad stared at each other, its spiritual wisdom appearing somewhat dull.
When the Tattooed Beasts, including the Red Fox, were released, they curiously gathered around the Golden Toad.
The Golden Toad, frightened, continuously attempted to escape.
Li Mo shook his head helplessly. For now, expecting the Golden Toad to autonomously attack was unrealistic, forcing him to split his attention to control its actions.
However, as long as the Golden Toad did not show signs of losing control, its spiritual wisdom was likely to improve given the potential of the secondary beast head tattoo.
Li Mo let the five little creatures move freely within the seclusion room.
At first, the Golden Toad exhibited some hesitation but quickly adjusted to the external environment, opening its mouth to absorb the metallic spiritual energy in the air.
Li Mo stretched lazily. While preparing the Golden Toad Beast Head’s simulation with his eight-armed spine nerve, he pulled out a bone scroll from his chest pocket.
Regarding the promotion of the Universal Skillful Hand, Li Mo occasionally exchanged ideas with Han Cai via spiritual tablets.
However, due to Li Mo not cultivating multi-limb techniques, Han Cai did not recommend hastily undergoing multi-arm transformation.
Li Mo himself felt that the benefits of the multi-arm transformation were limited for him. Yet, given the difficulty of refining Corpse Mountain during the early stage of youth, he had no choice but to rely on the extra limbs provided by the Universal Skillful Hand.
He devised a possible solution: using the Multi-legged Soul Spider Spell to refine temporary arms.
According to Li Mo’s concept, the temporary arms would rely on spiritual power to sustain vitality. Once spiritual power was depleted, the arms would wither and decay.
Simply put, these were a pair of arms that could be discarded at any time.
Han Cai reviewed the Multi-legged Soul Spider Spell and deemed the temporary arms feasible to a certain extent. However, as it was merely a workaround, residual impurities from the spiritual energy in the arms would inevitably corrode the flesh.
Since Li Mo possessed multiple dantians, he naturally did not fear the downsides of the temporary arms. In the end, he persuaded Han Cai to perfect the plan with him.
Li Mo poured the prepared soul spider blood into a Liu Li jar, inside which were two lifelike swollen human hands, actually a type of spiritual material known as Blood and Flesh Lotus.
Due to the special texture of Blood and Flesh Lotus and the effects of the Multi-limb Mountain Yam Field, its structure had become highly close to that of a normal arm.
Once the soul spider blood was fully absorbed, Li Mo retrieved the Blood and Flesh Lotus.
As if refining a magical artifact, Li Mo reconstructed meridian vessels and blood vessels for the Blood and Flesh Lotus, using the ground beast bones in place of normal bones.
Li Mo worked arduously for a long time. As soon as the temporary arms were formed, fine spider fur sprouted across their surface, giving them a visibly unstable appearance.
The Creation Book flipped open, and the blank pages instantly revealed the shadow image of the temporary arms, proving their feasibility and even readiness for direct imprinting.
Li Mo cut open his side ribs and grafted the temporary arms onto the wounds. The Universal Skillful Hand instinctively generated blood vessels, establishing connections between his left and right arms’ magic fingers and the temporary arms.
The Universal Skillful Hand achieved promotion to the Weak Crown Period, but once the temporary arms lost vitality, the spell would regress to the Childhood stage.
Li Mo swung the arms a few times to get accustomed. As Mist Fog Spiritual Power surged into the temporary arms, the spiritual energy began to become distinctly impure.
The flesh at the connection points also began to show signs of decay.
However, this would be manageable for the short term. The two temporary arms seemed almost naturally his.
He reabsorbed the Tattooed Beasts back into his skin, then tested the Golden Toad Beast Head, initiating simulations of the tattoo on his left shoulder using various materials.
Originally estimated to take half a day, Li Mo completed it in merely one two-hour cycle.
Once the simulation of the Golden Toad Beast Head was completed, the entire tattoo resembled a design etched in gold. A chillingly fierce aura surged forth.
Li Mo observed the temporary arms and noticed that their flesh had already started showing subtle signs of deterioration.
"It seems unless directly imprinted, even sustaining spiritual power continuously won’t allow the soul spider arms to exist for long..."
The brutal grafting method for the arms was something only Li Mo could utilize. Without multiple dantians, even slight negligence could lead to deviation.
After thinking for a moment, he began mass-producing temporary arms, stopping only when over ten Liu Li jars were placed before him.
Li Mo casually tore off the temporary arms that had turned black and spoiled. Immersed in absolute focus, he seemed to feel no pain at all.
He mentally reviewed the refining process for Corpse Mountain.
No matter how confident he was, Li Mo knew it was impossible to succeed on the first attempt. He directly took out the Meat Stone dug from the Three-layered Medicinal Field.
The Meat Stone was also classified as spiritual material, found exclusively at high altitudes on Multi-limb Mountain. It measured over two meters in size, composed entirely of innumerable arms.
Li Mo carefully inspected the Meat Stone, studying its surface patterns, contemplating where to begin for Corpse Mountain.
Corpse Mountain, as a top-grade magical artifact with Yin Earth properties, had a unique feature: the need to bury corpses within the mountain to nurture Yin Attribute Spiritual Energy, resembling a fake spirit stone vein.
Meat Stone itself constituted corpses, so theoretically, refining Corpse Mountain shouldn’t be too difficult.
Li Mo took a deep breath and grafted new temporary arms again. Using the Meat Stone as the core, he began layering it with various Earth Attribute Spiritual Materials.
Despite being merely a magical artifact embryo, refining Corpse Mountain required hundreds of Earth Attribute Spiritual Materials.
Fortunately, Corpse Mountain did not demand high-grade materials. Otherwise, Li Mo would have gone bankrupt trying to gather such a large amount of mid- to high-grade spiritual materials.
The Meat Stone gradually expanded in size, cracking the floor and forming a large pit.
Cracks spread across the Meat Mountain, and due to mismatches in spiritual material compatibility, Li Mo’s first attempt at refining Corpse Mountain ended in failure.
Li Mo’s expression remained indifferent as he tossed the Meat Stone into his storage bag. With a significant amount of spiritual materials wasted, the Meat Stone’s only remaining use was fertilizing medicine fields.
He replaced his temporary arms, beginning again to refine a new Meat Stone.
Li Mo had been preparing for this Corpse Mountain for two years, spending most of the spirit stones he earned on purchasing materials. He refused to give up, believing he’d eventually stumble upon success against the odds.
Yet, his second Meat Stone broke down immediately due to a mismatch in material compatibility.
Li Mo silently summarized the errors, adding the eight-armed spine nerve into the refining process to handle minute supportive adjustments.
Any artifact refiner witnessing this scene would likely be utterly astounded.
Li Mo’s memorization skills were fully utilized, and even his head emitted white vapor, causing the seclusion room’s temperature to rise noticeably.
No longer content with just one pair of temporary arms, he directly grafted three pairs onto his ribs.
Mid-grade Spirit Stones were piled in the corner, while the Pao Xiao Swallowing Body replenished Li Mo’s spiritual power, and the resilience of his Eight Extraordinary Meridians ensured he wouldn’t collapse.
His refining motions were dizzyingly fast, and although the Meat Stones kept failing, the completeness of the magical artifact embryo continued to improve bit by bit.
Li Mo’s innate madness surfaced—he wouldn’t stop until he reached his goal.
Even while fusing spiritual materials, the eight-armed spine nerve kept producing temporary arms, treating them entirely as consumables.
The refining ordeal lasted a full two months.
After burning through most of his assets, Li Mo finally succeeded in refining a somewhat incomplete Corpse Mountain artifact embryo. Its quality hovered between mid and top grade.
The Corpse Mountain stood over ten meters tall, with an outward appearance devoid of the Multi-limb Mountain’s eerie strangeness.
Its outer form resembled a perfectly scaled-down mountain range, complete with rocky cliffs shaped from hundreds of Earth Attribute Spiritual Materials—flawlessly detailed.
Li Mo stowed the Corpse Mountain into his internal organs and immediately collapsed into sleep.